The 5 (6? or 4?) day Work Week

So what as per you is an efficient working model, in terms of the number of hours? Is a 5 day week more efficient or should we look at examining the feasibility of 4 day work weeks in India? (Already some organizations across the world have experimented with it, getting largely positive outcomes).

Why then, so many companies in India still insist on employees working for 6 days a week, without any breaks? And there is little value given to the maximum of 48 hours to be spent per week (as per the Factories Act, 1948) as per a report by NSSO, as the actual time spent is more in the range of 60-80 hours per week. This just shows how little we care for our employees (for any kind of work, not restricted to white-collar, or entrepreneurs alone).

Whereas, a lot of research shows that concentrating on work for a lesser time, but deeper focus gives more productivity and more output. One could argue, of course, this does not hold true for manual labor or the non-organized sector, which still consists of more than 90% of all available jobs in India. Having said that, exploitation of labor is common everywhere, and for the sake of this article, I will largely restrict my writing to the organized sector (as the unorganized sector and contract labor deserve a completely separate article to themselves).

So in the organized sector, we obviously have the following industries which still follow a 6 day work week:

·???????Banks and Financial Institutions (Which in a way is an essential service hence can be understood, plus they get 2nd and 4th Saturdays off). However, it also depends on the job profile. Not every employee works on Saturdays even in banks.

·???????Manufacturing Sector (This includes all kinds of industries such as Chemicals, Automobiles, Steel, etc.) where you need to have the factories running 365 days a year. Just like banks, lot of employees who aren’t directly involved in Production, usually work for 5 days. But there are exceptions.

·???????Essential Services (Such as Electricity and water supply, etc.)- They are also required to be available throughout the clock

·???????Hospitality Sector- Such as Hotels, a lot of employees even end up working 7 days a week

·???????Majority of PSUs- Most of the Government organizations such as SAIL, NTPC, BHEL, IOCL, etc have a 6 day work week, although things are changing in some areas.

·???????Healthcare- Again this is a critical sector, and employees are usually overworked

·???????Certain Startups- A lot of startups keep a 6 day week stating the quantum of work is high at the initial stages, which I personally feel is an extremely wrong approach and will certainly cause burn-off for many employees.

·???????Other private companies not mentioned above

The situation is so bad that even companies who have weekends off on paper, usually end up making the employees work at least for some time on weekends. And since there is a huge job insecurity present, most people end up working against their will, spoiling their personal life and happiness in the process. The burden is especially high on those, who have very little savings, and cannot afford to stay even one day without work. The organizations know this and do their best to exploit it. It’s a vicious cycle, and it's almost impossible to get out of it. Very few organizations give emphasis on mental health and actual job fulfillment, beyond filling up annual Employee Satisfaction Surveys, which mostly do nothing, except for remaining as yearly targets for certain functions.

I would actively advocate companies, especially startups and newer firms which do not have burdens of past history, to give as much freedom and flexibility to employees as they can. Enforcing strict timings and asking employees to work overtime each week, without any extra pay, is a horrendous process and should be avoided if you are actually serious about establishing a healthy work environment. Just spending more hours on work alone will not give you more profits. I have had some leaders or senior management people claim that they proudly work 70-80 hours a week and it's highly recommended that everyone does it. ?There is a certain Indian or maybe Asian trait to display how you are sacrificing your personal life and ignoring your family at the cost of work, which is appreciated a lot by society. My humble message to such people is ‘Sacrifice your personal life as much as you want to, but do not torture your subordinates and expect them to follow suit.’?

Reference Article (and image taken from)- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/as-the-world-experiments-with-four-day-work-week-indians-put-forward-their-thoughts/working-beyond-work-hours/slideshow/78681985.cms